


Birthday kiss

by IgnoctForeverEtchedInMyHeart



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Awkward Crush, Birthday, Confessions, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Mentions of other characters - Freeform, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-10-24 03:59:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17697242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IgnoctForeverEtchedInMyHeart/pseuds/IgnoctForeverEtchedInMyHeart
Summary: Gladio wanted to give Ignis a present even though he'd been told not to.





	Birthday kiss

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to polish this up a bit but I'm painfully aware Iggy's birthday is almost over and that I need to go to bed lol Regardless, I hope you enjoy ^.^
> 
> Iggy is 15 and about to have his 16th birthday :)

“Gladio, I told you not to get me anything,” Ignis laughed bashfully as a small box was thrust in his direction.

“And I know that meant I should get you something,” Gladio grinned, leaning against his school locker. “It’s the last day before we break up for half term and I weren’t sure if I’d see you at the citadel so figured I should give it to you now.”

“I…” Ignis looked down at the little black box with a gold ribbon beautifully decorating it. “I’m speechless… thank you, Gladio. Truly.”

“Its nothing,” Gladio said, waving a dismissive hand in Ignis’ direction as he dipped his head into his locker. “Thank me once you’ve opened it. You might not even like it...”

Ignis shook his head, clutching the present to his chest. “I already cherish it.”

Gladio’s eyes widened as he peeked out of his locker to see Ignis looking in his direction wearing the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen a guy have. “I, uh… I’m glad. It’s good you like it,” he said, keeping his tone casual. “Well, I’ve got to get to my class, so maybe see you before your birthday?”

“Of course,” Ignis nodded, looking up at his crush. “I hope to make an appearance here or there… If not, I’ll text you.”

“Yeah? Sounds good,” Gladio responded. He closed his locker with a smile and gestured towards the present. “I hope you like it… Took me a while to find, but it was worth it.”

“That means a lot to me, Gladio. Perhaps... I can visit you?” Ignis asked, slipping the present carefully into his satchel. His schedule was a little busy but he was sure he could find some time to visit the Amicitia manor between his studies, training and attending to Noctis.

“That would be great!” Gladio beamed, coughing when he realised how excited he sounded. “I’ll check my dad hasn’t got anything planned and I’ll let you know. He, uhh… plans family stuff sometimes when the king can spare him, so I’ll find out...”

“That would be wonderful. Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, Iggy. I wouldn’t miss your birthday. But, I’ve got class, so I guess this is where I should say see you soon?”

“I suppose so.”

“Cool. See you.”

“See you soon, Gladio.”

“Yeah, you too, Iggy.”

~

He knew it wasn’t advisable to have feelings for Gladio given their stations and the duties they were expected to fulfil, but no matter how many attempts he made to stop himself from pursuing Gladio and convince himself that his feelings were nothing more than passing teenage hormones, his heart grew fonder with each interaction. 

At fifteen, Ignis was only learning the basics of combat and there was yet to be a set requirement put in place for how often he was required to train. However, with Gladio training five days a week, he’d found himself including training sessions in his schedule to coincide with Gladio’s. They weren’t his most productive sessions given he often became distracted by Gladio, but he attended regardless. He found himself attempting trickier manoeuvres in a bid to impress him and occasionally, he received recognition for his accomplishments.

It was silly, he knew. Being this smitten for a friend and colleague could end in disaster given they were expected to be beside Noctis for the duration of their lives, but he couldn’t help it. Gladio was his first crush and he was enjoying this feeling of falling for him, even if he was preparing for his feelings to be unrequited. 

~

Ignis ran from his father's car to the front door of the Amicitia manor, waving in his father's direction as he dashed to the door that Jared held open for him.

“Good morning, Master Ignis. I believe birthday celebrations are in order,” Jared greeted as he closed the door behind Ignis. “Master Gladio is awaiting you in his bedroom.”

“Thank you, Jared,” Ignis replied, as he took off his winter coat and passed it to Jared. He nodded his head in gratitude and walked through the familiar manor where he spent a fair amount of his spare time.

It wasn’t long before he heard Iris’ giggling coming from the living room, but thankfully, peering into the room revealed Clarus was home so Iris’ teasing should remain at a minimum. As soon as he entered the room the attention fell on him. 

“Iggy!” Iris giggled running over to wrap her arms around his waist.

“Hello, Iris. Hello, Sir Clarus,” Ignis greeted, bowing his head in respect for his superior before he leaned down and wrapped his arms around Iris, though she soon slipped free and ran back to her father.

“Call me Clarus. You may yet to join the Crownsguard, but I respect you nonetheless,” Clarus said. “Gladio’s upstairs.”

“He can’t wait to see you! He keeps talking about you!” Iris beamed, bouncing on the balls of her feet. 

“Oh! I see...” Ignis uttered, taken aback by Iris’ statement. He readjusted his glasses to hide his warming cheeks. “That's good to know.”

“Oooo you’re going red!”

“Iris, leave our guest alone,” Clarus laughed. “Go, Ignis, before she tries to embarrass you further. Astral’s know she’s done so enough to Gladio.”

“Uh, of course. Thank you.” Ignis hesitated but he followed Clarus’ advice and made a quick departure across the living room and up the stairs. 

“Gladdy and Iggy sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

“Oh, Astral’s,” Ignis flushed, taking two steps at a time. He couldn’t understand how Iris had caught on about his crush on Gladio when they had hardly spent time together.

Outside Gladio’s door, he took a deep breath, trying to compose himself. He didn’t want Gladio to see him this flustered over the childish teasing of an eight-year-old girl.

He knocked on the door.

“Come in!”

HIgnis let himself in, smiling at the sight of Gladio sat on his bed, wrapped in a blanket with a book in his hand. He looked so mature and that was very attractive. 

Gladio was an avid reader, something that had caught him by surprise when he’d first found out. Until then, Gladio had seemed intimidating and oozing in confidence with a gift for charisma.

Ignis meanwhile was plagued by acne, had little muscle and though not many knew, he had anxiety, albeit, manageable. Though he could hold conversations with officials, he wasn’t one for much social interaction, preferred his own company and had very little going for him besides his intellect. 

Ignis coughed and closed the door behind him. Ignoring the continuing singsong teasing from Iris in the background. “Good morning-”

“Happy birthday, Iggy!” Gladio beamed, discarding his book on his bed and slipping from the blanket to stand in front of him. “I, uh, I hope Iris didn’t say anything…?”

“Ah,” Ignis laughed, nervous that this topic had come up. Had his crush really been this obvious? “It was nothing I couldn’t handle.”

“Damn brat. I told her to leave you alone,” Gladio moaned, running a hand over his face. “Sorry…”

“It’s fine. Girls do that kind of thing,” Ignis said, trying to reassure him. “I’m sorry for intruding. If I’d have known your father was home I would have arranged another day… I know how rare it is for you to have family time.”

“When family time means getting grilled about who I’m dating then I’m happy to skip out.”

“You’re dating someone?” Ignis asked a little too quickly.

“No! No. I mean, no way. I _like_ someone, but that’s it. I’m single…”

“I see… me too. Just for clarification,” Ignis said, internally kicking himself for saying something so utterly ridiculous. 

“Seriously?” Gladio asked, his eyes widening. “It’s just… I kinda thought maybe you had someone after how well you did in the Lucian love poem assignment…” 

_That_. Ignis looked at the floor to stop himself from staring into Gladio’s eyes that he could feel watching him intently. “There’s someone I like and I wrote that poem thinking about _him_...” 

“... He must be special if he can make you write something that amazing,” Gladio laughed. “Who’d of thought you’re such a romantic, huh?”

Ignis flushed, turning to look at the book Gladio had been reading on the bed. “Says the one who was reading a romance novel.”

Gladio followed Ignis’ gaze, groaning at the sight of the books cover on full display, he turned back to look at Ignis, his cheeks warm. “In my defence, it’s got a great storyline…”

“I’m sure it does. Who’d of thought you’re such a romantic?” Ignis teased. 

“Okay, you got me, but it’s good to be a bit romantic… it means I’ll be a good boyfriend one day…”

Ignis raised an eyebrow at him. “With that logic, I’ll be a good boyfriend despite my lack of experience in romantic endeavours.”

“What do you mean?! You’ve never dated? But you’re a catch, Iggy.”

“Hardly,” Ignis scoffed. He knew full well his looks were nothing to behold and his style only served to make him look like a geek. There was no way someone could like him, especially given the horrible comments he often overheard from his classmates. “I think you’re alone in that thought, Gladio.”

“Yeah, right. There’s no one else as cool as you-”

“Cool? Now I know you’re just being kind. There are many words I could use to describe myself and cool will never be one of them. I’m…” he hesitated when he caught sight of Gladio’s expression. “May I ask why you’re looking at me like that?”

“Because you’re talking down about yourself. It’s your birthday, Iggy. You should be happy. I didn’t mean for you to start thinking all this rubbish about yourself.”

“Your rubbish is my truth. Besides, I am happy. I’m spending my birthday with you. That’s much better than what I would be doing today had you not been free,” Ignis smiled. “Thank you for letting me visit you.”

“Don’t thank me,” Gladio moaned, running his hand through his freshly cut hair. “Did you… you know? Like my gift?”

“Oh!” Ignis tugged the neck of his jumper down to reveal the skull necklace he wore. “I love it!” 

“Good,” Gladio laughed. “I was debating for ages about what you’d like. I was gonna do something simple like new stationery, but then I thought it’s your sixteenth so I should do something special. Plus, I’m guessing you must receive a lot of that stuff, huh?”

“A fair bit… but this,” his fingers touched the skull, “is my favourite present. Thank you for buying me something that required so much consideration… I… almost felt a little unworthy-”

“Rubbish. It suits you. Just accept it and don’t think about worthiness. You’re awesome, Iggy, and you deserve awesome stuff, so just relax, yeah?” Gladio scratched his neck as he looked anywhere but at Ignis. “I wasn’t really sure what you wanted to do to celebrate so I thought we could go out?”

“Go out?”

“Yeah. Me and you.”

“You want us to go out?”

“Yeah. If you want to?”

“As in dating?”

“What?” Gladio blinked. His focus now on Ignis. “You want us to go on a date for your birthday?”

Ignis froze, realising his error. “I think I should leave-”

“Hey, wait!” Gladio said, stepping around Ignis and blocking the door.

Ignis turned his face away, avoiding Gladio’s gaze. 

“Iggy. Look at me?”

Ignis shook his head.

“Come on, Ignis. It’s me.”

“Which is precisely why I can’t… that was… possibly one of my most embarrassing blunders to date and I’ve had a few I thought couldn’t be outdone…” 

Gladio shrugged. “I’ve had worse. Imagine your crush was right in front of you and you couldn’t stop yourself saying stupid stuff around him. Stuff you wouldn’t normally have issues saying but when he’s there your words get mixed up and you end up asking him out…”

“... You what?” Ignis asked, his gaze slowly moving to meet Gladio’s.

Gladio laughed. “Yeah. See that’s embarrassing. Now imagine you have a little sister that knows you crush on your best friend and when he arrived she started singing songs about kissing…”

Ignis blinked. “... But that’s… Iris was… I mean, she was singing…”

“Go on.”

Ignis’ heart pounded in his chest as he thought the conversation over. Surely he was drawing the wrong conclusion? There was no possible way Gladio reciprocated his feelings, was there? That would be-”

“Iggy?”

“Yes?” he squeaked uncharacteristically. 

“If your crush was standing in front of you and looking really confused about your confession, would you kiss him?”

“I… I might, but I’d prefer if he kisses me-” His words were cut off when Gladio lent down, pressing his lips against his. It was over in a blink of an eye, but it awoke every nerve in his body. 

“Happy birthday, Iggy.”


End file.
